


The Breaking Wave

by commonlyquixotic



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, BAMF Umino Iruka, Chunin Kakashi, Diplomat Minato, Fluff, Gen, Genius Obito, Jounin Iruka, Pranks, Role Reversal, Team Feels, Timeline Shenanigans, Yondaime Kushina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 05:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7627693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commonlyquixotic/pseuds/commonlyquixotic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kakashi and Iruka role reversal.  Kakashi as a career chunin, and Iruka as an elite jounin. The details are different, but the story is the same.  Or at least remarkably similar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Breaking Wave

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dinner with the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad](https://archiveofourown.org/works/919375) by [pentapus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentapus/pseuds/pentapus). 



Kakashi Hatake is a typical chunin, just ask anyone. Or don’t, because if they’ve heard of him at all, they’ll probably tell you that he’s the lone wolf tracker with the crazy hair and the pack of nin-dogs whose specialty is pit-traps lined with seals. People don’t like to bring up the fact that he has the sharingan. “Please take it.” Obito had told him, earnestness written all over his face. “I won’t be there to protect you next time. It might give you the edge to survive. I want some part of me to see the end of the war.” Sometimes he wishes Obito had never saddled him with the thing. The Uchiha had almost called for his execution before realizing that he can’t use it to any effect. It turns out you need an Uchiha brain to process the input from it, so if he tries to use it in battle he’ll be so distracted by the dazzling gleam of sunlight on a shurikan or the way the leaves shift as the wind of it’s passing brushes against them that he’ll completely forget to dodge. Using it is also a massive drain on his tiny and carefully rationed pool of chakra, and leaves him with excruciating headaches. The memories are imprinted on his brain in perfect detail, so it’s great for memorizing maps or seals on missions, or the latest Icha Icha novel to occupy his mind during boring shifts at the mission desk, but it’s not quite the gift Obito intended to give him. Still, it’s the truth when he tells Rin that even though he tried to refuse it, he does value Obito’s last gift, and it’s not anyone’s fault that his brain isn’t wired properly to use it. He doesn’t hold it against Obito that he didn’t know, and he certainly doesn’t hold it against Rin. They’re shinobi, and shinobi know that sometimes you have to make decisions without enough information and be thankful if you have the opportunity to live with the consequences.

 

People also don’t tend to mention that he’s the son of the famed White Fang, since he never had a whisper of a chance of living up to his father’s legacy even if he hadn’t died in disgrace. He has excellent control, and a knack for strategy and tactics, but his chakra pool is so small he can perform only the most basic jutsu, and couldn’t possibly cut it as a medic-nin, and his social and organizational skills are bad enough that he’s not cut out to be a paper-nin. Really, Hatake’s are ideally suited as trackers anyway, what with their enhanced senses and dog contract, and he’s patient and devious enough that he enjoys the work, so he can’t complain. It gives him a chance to use the weapons’ skills his father taught him as well as the smattering of seals he picked up from Minato-sensei and traps he learned from Kushina-san. So long as he sticks to reasonable targets and doesn’t set his sights on anyone too high-ranked without appropriate back-up, he does well enough.

 

All that aside, he knows he’s pretty average as a shinobi. He’s never been destined for great things like Obito, who awakened his Sharingan at age four defending his parents’ memory from the accusations of a bitter clansman. Obito had always had a rocky relationship with his clan, but had been determined to bridge the gulf that had formed between them and the rest of Konoha, and become Hokage. Kushina had always laughed and said maybe she’ll leave the job to him when she finally got tired of trying to convince the council and the other Kage’s that they didn’t have to be such sticks-in-the-mud. He hadn’t realized how serious she had actually been until after Obito had died. They’d happened to be at the memorial stone at the same time and after standing for a while in silence, she had run her finger across Obito's name and said quietly, “I really would have left the village to him someday. I would have known I was leaving it in good hands.” She’d broken the mood with a wry smile, and a teasing, “How would you like to be Hokage someday, Kakashi?” He’d shaken his head, knowing how unsuited he would be for the role, and she’d commented that she’d have to train someone up from scratch.

 

Somehow that had translated to Kushina taking on an apprentice alongside her duties as Hokage, and that’s how he met Umino Iruka. Apparently Kushina’s train of thought had been that she was a great Hokage, so she should look for someone like herself to train as her successor. Her only caveat had been that they couldn’t hate paperwork the way she did, since what was the point of having an apprentice if she couldn’t foist paperwork off on him as soon as she’d gotten him trained up a bit. Kakashi had noticed some alarming parallels to her criteria for a husband, but he knew when to keep his mouth shut, especially since Minato seemed to relish extra diplomatic duties and they did come up with some impressive seals together. Anyway, Iruka had been dragged into her office for the third time that month because he had covered every roof in the village in some unknown and previously undetected substance that was activated by rain to become slipperier than oil on ice. Shinobi had been forced down to the streets in droves until someone had the bright idea to run along the walls – more chakra intensive, but still worth it for the jounin and ANBU since they could move much faster when they didn’t have to worry about colliding with civilians – only to find that they left colored footprints along the walls keyed to their elemental affinity. This had quickly led to much fascinated experimentation and the resulting insight that any touch left a mark had caused chaos among the shinobi ranks as they left footprints, handprints, and hand-drawn griffiti everywhere, and then started challenging each other to leave “wall angels” in successively more obscure and impossible locations. Kushina had recruited Iruka on the spot, placating his accusers with the promise that he would be spending his foreseeable future removing the effects of the prank and filing her paperwork. In reality, Iruka had formulated his materials to break down on their own six hours after they were activated, and he took to filing paperwork like he was born to it. Within a year he had graduated the academy with flying colors and was the undisputed ruler of the paper-nin. On the one hand, it left him a lot less time for pulling pranks, and he obviously put some thought into avoiding pranks that would have negative repercussions for his mentor. On the other, he and Kushina started pulling pranks _together_. People were a little confused at first about who to complain to when it was the _Hokage_ pulling pranks, but after they worked it out Minato started getting even more practice in diplomacy. So maybe things were better all around? Kushina had a knack for sorting out disputes that way.

 

Umino Iruka rose steadily through the ranks and started making a name for himself as Konoha’s Breaking Wave after taking out a team of enemy ninja with some impressive water jutsu he’d found on his parents’ scrolls. He was generally friendly and hard-working, but could be unyielding as stone and defended his comrades with fiery passion. After hearing that gossip, Kakashi had told Iruka that he just needed to become known for something wind-related and he’d have all the elements. Kushina teased him about the name being a result of his destructive tendencies in the field, and Iruka wiped the floor with him during a spar a week later using an impressive new wind jutsu. He and Rin started jokingly calling him Konoha’s Hurricane after that, though the title never appeared in the bingo books.

 

When Rin makes jounin Kushina tells them that they’re one of the more effective teams in Konoha’s history. They may not be quite the heavy hitters the Sannin were, but they are at least as versatile in the field, and tend to be better at diplomacy overall. Effectively having two jounin-sensei also gives them a bit of an edge. Even if one of them is a diplomat and seals researcher and barely active in the field. Although maybe that helps too. Only Iruka’s skills as a shinobi are well known outside of Fire Country, and even then, his skill with traps isn’t nearly as widely known as the flashy jutsu he uses when he wants to intimidate an enemy rather than kill or capture them with a minimum of fuss, and he’s also known for coming up with creative diplomatic solutions in the field, so they don’t have quite the targets on their backs that many effective teams do.

 

After the Kyuubi attack the three of them who are left drift apart for a while. They all have a tendency to bury themselves in work, especially when they’re upset, and without Minato there to cajole or be disappointed and Kushina to tempt them with home cooking or drag them by the ear if necessary, they have fewer team dinners. They are all devastated by the fact that they have to avoid Minato’s son so as not to reveal his identity to Konoha’s enemies. Iruka resolves to join ANBU so he can at least be part of Naruto’s guard detail, and for a time he only catches Iruka’s scent around the village tied to a certain ANBU in a fox mask, or on the occasional impeccably written mission report. Rin’s scent cycles between the hospital and her apartment, with occasional detours for groceries or a quick bite to eat. He takes more missions, interrupted occasionally by stretches of time off duty or manning the mission desk waiting for injuries to heal. He reads, and trains, and starts learning how to cook, and if he occasionally happens to walk past Naruto on the street, well, he’s always liked a good stroll around the village on a nice day. And if, as Naruto gets a little older, he starts running into him at Ichiraku’s and treating him to dinner occasionally, well he was a hungry young orphan once too. And if he starts inviting him to dinner with his team, well Iruka’s out of ANBU now, and the Third is slowly transferring more of his responsibilities over to him, so Iruka’s going to be needing an apprentice soon. It’s a good thing Iruka still enjoys paperwork, but the kid looks like he’ll shape up to be a good diplomat.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always had a fascination with alternate universes. I've seen at least one story where Kakashi was pretending to be a burned out prodigy, and many with BAMF!Iruka with a variety of interesting skills. But I don't think I've ever seen a role reversal where Kakashi was actually a career chunin and Iruka was an elite jounin. When the idea popped into my head I decided to write it and the other changes to the universe just came naturally from there. Iruka's prank is inspired by one of my favorite Harry Potter pranks from Resonance by GreenGecko.


End file.
